The Merit Hub

Marshalls aimed to be the biggest and best

"We look innovative, contemporary, and like we’re really moving forward as a brand"

Marshalls had a clear vision … they wanted an exhibition stand that would make a strong impact with everyone and portray them as being the biggest and best supplier to a particular customer.

Here, Liam Poole, Brand Manager, Domestic Marketing, tells about Marshalls’ experience of working with Merit and how we used our exhibition stand design skills to meet their objectives …

“I think it was refreshing to see a company who seemed to really look at what the client actually wanted, and try to come up with that different solution.

“Customers have really noticed the difference with this stand, which is absolutely what we wanted. We look like the biggest here and the best there. We’re looking innovative, we look contemporary, we look like we’re really moving forward as a brand.

“My time’s very short in the job that I do, with all the different areas that I cover. So, when Merit took on the project ownership, that really did set them apart from everybody else.

“There were very clear deadlines, what was needed, to whom, by when. It was a really simple system that made it so much easier for me, and the designers I work with.

“The experience with the design process was fantastic. We tend to get very repetitive in what we do when we’ve got so many different shows. Especially when you’re working with a product that is effectively concrete or stone, it can be a very boring product.

“So we very clearly set out to Merit that we wanted this product to look fantastic, really stand out and not look like it’s a boring piece of concrete. As soon as we saw the first visual, we knew it was what we wanted. We knew we’d chosen the right company.

Hearts and minds of customers

“In the brief to Merit, we very much wanted it to be a journey that our customer took around the stand. I think that’s what’s been created in terms of walking them through our new product.

“Being able to ultimately end with ‘and here’s a great reason to use Marshalls’ really works for me.

“Merit using their experience gave us the opportunity to use a video wall, where we could put different bits of media together. It gives a consumer, an installer, a visitor to our stand an opportunity to see different bits that might be important to them.

“People are drawn to the stand because of its presence in itself, and I think that’s really put us in the hearts and minds of our customers. And they really go away remembering what we had to show.”